Courtesy New York Daily NewsKhalid (Nel) Nelson of West Brighton was a guard in teen unit of Rikers Island, where youth was beaten to death.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A city correction officer from Staten Island will land on the wrong side of the iron bars for promoting “a shadow regime of violence and intimidation” among teenage inmates on Rikers Island, resulting in the beating death of an 18-year-old three years ago, officials said.

Khalid (Nel) Nelson, 37, of West Brighton, pleaded guilty yesterday in Bronx state Supreme Court to a felony count of attempted second-degree assault, according to authorities.

“Two city correction officers who oversaw a shadow regime of intimidation and violence in our city adolescent jail facility have now admitted their guilt,” Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the city Department of Investigation, said in a statement. “Fittingly, they face prison sentences themselves. As inmates, they will appreciate the importance of correction officers maintaining integrity and safety in the city jails,”

Under their agreements, Nelson will be sentenced Jan. 17 to a year behind bars, while McKie will receive two years, Ms. Gill Hearn said.

The criminal case against a third correction officer, Denise (Mama A) Albright of Manhattan, is pending.

Nelson’s lawyer, Renee Hill, of the Bronx, declined comment yesterday on the plea.

Prosecutors said Nelson, McKie and Ms. Albright turned a blind eye while a dozen inmates ran what the guards called “The Program” in a housing unit in the Robert N. Davoren Center. Officials said it was a “Lord of the Flies”-style hierarchy, with the strong intimidating the weak.

On Oct. 18, 2008, Christopher Robinson, 18, was beaten to death by his fellow inmates because he refused to go along with the extortion scheme, authorities allege.

Nelson and McKie essentially outsourced their work to the 16- to 18-year-old inmates they were supposed to be supervising. Ms. Albright is accused of “acting in concert with them,” court papers said.

Nelson and McKie recruited inmates to serve as subordinate managers, foot soldiers and enforcers, according to Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson.

Inmates were muscled into turning over a percentage of their commissary accounts and phone privileges to the foot soldiers and enforcers, and were at times forced to give up their shoes and clothes.

McKie and Nelson would let the beatings happen, generally designate where and when they would occur, and allowed the inmates to get access to locked, secluded areas of the housing units, authorities said.

They instructed that victims shouldn’t be hit in the face, fearing that visible injuries would attract attention.

Afterward, the correction officers filed false reports about the assaults, and intimidated victims into making false statements, as well, according to the indictment against them.

Twelve inmates were charged in the scheme. Five have pleaded guilty; charges are pending against the remaining seven, Ms. Gill Hearn said.

Authorities said Nelson and McKie — whose annual base salaries are $73,546 — have been suspended without pay since their arrests in January 2009. Each began working for the Correction Department in 2004.